


How Einar Lost His Voice

by white_cicatrice



Category: Hatari (Band)
Genre: Cute, Even Completely Safe For Your Neighbour's 5-Year-Old, Fairy Tale Style, Gen, Icelandic Fairy Tale, completely safe for work, hatari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 03:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19760029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/white_cicatrice/pseuds/white_cicatrice
Summary: My attempt at writing in the style of a traditional Icelandic fairy tale.





	How Einar Lost His Voice

[ _Editor’s note: The reader will remember the great excitement recently when scholars at Háskóli Íslands discovered some hitherto unknown manuscripts amongst the personal papers in the archive of Jón Árnason, one of the 19th century’s most famous chroniclers of Icelandic folklore and fairy tales. We are most delighted to be able to present to you today one of the stories within – previously presumed lost forever – in full for the first time._ ]

Long, long ago, in the days when fairies, witches and giants walked upon the earth, there lived a young blacksmith named Einar, who had the most beautiful singing voice anyone had ever heard. People would come from far and wide to his village to hear him sing, and their hearts would fill with joy to hear the sweet sound.

Now, I must tell you that in that village there lived a witch who was in love with Einar, and who wanted to marry him and live with him deep in the forest, so that she and she alone would be able to hear his beautiful voice. By and by, she resolved to make Einar fall in love with her and make her his bride.

One bright midsummer’s day, she transformed herself into a beautiful woman and went in the morning to visit Einar at his smithy, where he was hard at work. The witch’s magic was powerful, and she had cast a spell that he would fall in love with her as soon as he touched her of his own free will. She knocked on his door and waited for him patiently. As soon as Einar opened the door, he could not believe his eyes! Who was this beautiful stranger? He had not seen her in the village before. He greeted her at his door and asked her business, and she asked if she may come in that he might repair a sword for her father. Now, when Einar was happy, he would sing a short melody to the birds of the village, whose language he could understand, as he sang as sweetly as they. In happiness at seeing this lovely woman, he sang to the birds, but he was much afraid when he heard their song in reply:

“ _Einar, Einar now beware_  
_This witch who comes with golden hair_  
_If you touch her once this day,_  
_Your very heart she’ll steal away_ ”

Einar was frightened, and sent the woman away, saying he was very sorry, but he was too busy to repair her father’s sword, so the witch left, annoyed that her plan had not succeeded.

But she was not to be put off so easily. That afternoon, she decided upon a new plan. She went back to Einar’s smithy, knocked on the door, then transformed herself into a beautiful flute carved from the finest birch wood and decorated with gold. When Einar opened his door and saw this beautiful flute on the ground, he was filled with gladness, and sang once more to the birds, but again he was much afraid when he heard their song in reply:

“ _Einar, hear our warning song -_  
_This flute is but the witch transformed!_  
_If you touch her once this day._  
_Your very heart she’ll steal away_ ”

Terrified, Einar took his iron tongs, picked up the flute, and threw it as far from his door as his strength would allow. The witch landed at the foot of a rowan tree and changed back into her true form. She stormed back to her cottage feeling very angry that her second plan had not been any more successful than the first.

But the witch was as cunning as she was powerful. Einar was known to be a kind man, and so she decided to make one last attempt to trick him. That evening, she went back again, and knocked upon his door. Then she transformed herself into a small kitten with a lame foot and waited. When Einar opened the door, he was quite beside himself with pity at the sight of this poor creature. No thought of singing to the birds entered his mind, but as he reached out his hand to tend to the injured animal, a flock of birds suddenly descended upon him, knocking him backwards, and he immediately understood.

“ _Einar, Einar, please be wise –_  
_See yon cat with witch’s eyes?_  
_If you touch her once this day._  
_Your very heart she’ll steal away_ ”

Einar was very grateful to his friends the birds, and as they flew away, he became angry, and said to the kitten,

“Why do you torment me so, witch?”

At this, the witch changed back into her true form, and told him that she loved him, and wished that he would love her also.

“But I cannot love you!” he said. “I will not!”

At this, the witch became angry, and put a curse on him, saying:

“You shall not speak until I hear you proclaim your love for me! I will allow you to say three words now to me – no more nor less – and I shall return your voice when I hear them, and not a moment before! Speak then, and speak wisely!”

Einar was filled with hatred for this foul witch. He knew well that he could never love her, and he did not care that she knew it! In his anger, he spoke these three words out loud:

“Hatred shall prevail!”

On hearing this, the witch flew into a terrible rage, and swore that these three words would be the only words he would ever speak again, and then she said:

“And I put a further curse upon you! You shall wear this unremovable mask of the night, and upon each side there shall be three devil’s horns, one for each time you have rejected me, and another under the mouth for the words of hatred you have spoken to me! In your ugliness, no woman shall ever look upon your face with love in her heart as long as you shall live!”

Einar tried and he tried to remove the mask, pulling this way and that, but to no avail. He ran out of his house and out of the village, ashamed lest the other villagers see his hideous appearance. He ran and he ran, for miles and miles, until he was exhausted and could run no more, whereupon he sat down at a crossroads and wept.

It so happened on this midsummer’s night that an elf named Sólbjört was walking abroad, and presently she came upon Einar weeping at the crossroads and took pity on him. She decided to test him to see whether he was a good man.

She went to him and said:

“Look! I have this bag of gold for you! Take it if you will!”

But Einar shook his head. What good were riches if he could not make a beautiful sound? What good was gold if no woman would ever look upon him with love in her heart? He wept all the more.

And Sólbjört said to him:

“You are a good man indeed to refuse such bounty! I shall grant you your heart’s desire. I cannot restore your voice, as the witch’s magic is too powerful, but I will do what I can.”

On saying this, she fashioned a drum from goatskin and birchwood, then handed it to Einar with two little branches from a nearby alder tree and bade him play. In truth, he did not know how, but he thought that Sólbjört was quite the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and he wanted to make her happy, so he set to his task. To his great joy, he found he could play very well, and Sólbjört began to dance. The more he played, the more she danced, and the more she danced, the more he wanted to play, and they continued like this, drumming and dancing long, long into the night.

When he was so exhausted that he could play no more, Sólbjört came and sat down upon the ground next to him, letting him rest his head on her shoulder, and told him that the world would know the beautiful sound of his drumming, and the people of the world would love him for it, and Einar knew in his heart that what she said was true, and he fell asleep beside her, filled with joy once more.

Some say that still to this very day, once a year Einar and Sólbjört meet there on midsummer’s evening, to drum and to dance long into the night. If you should be lucky enough to see them, don’t make a sound. Leave them to their dance, and you shall have good fortune. And that is the end of the story.


End file.
